Pina Colada Cocktail Recipe

The official beverage of Puerto Rico, Pina Colada is one of the most famous cocktails around the world. This sweet cocktail is usually blended or shaken with ice, and it combines rum, pineapple juice and coconut cream. Find out more about this iconic cocktail, its history and the way of preparing it.

The first legend related to Pina Colada refers to the historical times of pirates, seas and boats. It is said that a Puerto Rican pirate, named Roberto Cofresi, has decided to boost his team’s good spirit by treating them with a beverage made of exactly the same ingredients used in the modern, contemporary cocktail: rum, coconut and pineapple. But with the death of the pirate, the cocktail recipe was also lost, and only later on re-discovered and popularized among those who were keen to explore its delicious aroma.

Other legends assume that a Puerto Rican restaurant was the one to discover this cocktail. Presumably, two bartenders created a unique and tasteful cocktail made of coconut cream, pineapple juice, ice and condensed milk. But only after 1900 an official nomination of this cocktail was mentioned, and since then, it hasn’t stop conquering its public.

Besides the classical Pina Colada cocktail recipe, other variations may be possible. These include using different proportions, replacing rum with vodka ( in this case the cocktail will be called Virgin Pina Colada), replacing coconut cream with evaporated milk (Belizean Pina Colada), using amaretto instead of the rum (Amaretto Colada), or mixing coconut rum with pineapple juice and ice (Staten Island Ferry).

Garnished with pineapple slices or maraschino cherries, Pina Colada is a tropical, sweet, refreshing and very tasteful drink, easy to prepare and a delight when consumed. Its ingredients inspired other popular cocktails, most of them based on pineapple.